Country Set For Invasion Of England

Coordinated by the London office of the Country Music Association, the United Kingdom`s five major record companies will unite in March for an unprecedented effort to promote country music.

The companies--CBS/Epic, EMI, MCA, RCA and Warner Bros.--will cooperate in a campaign called ``Discover the New Country`` and will specially promote two acts from each company: Rosanne Cash and Exile from CBS/Epic, Don Williams and Sawyer Brown from EMI, the Oak Ridge Boys and George Strait from MCA, Alabama and the Judds from RCA and Gary Morris and Hank Williams Jr. from Warner Bros.

In the campaign, each company will have charge of specific areas of marketing and merchandising.

``The (British) teenage record market is declining, and the record companies are now looking seriously at the over-25 age market, which traditionally is more receptive to country music,`` says Cynthia Leu, European manager of the CMA.

``By pooling the resources and energies of the major companies, country music`s share of the market will increase and everyone will benefit.``

ON THE RECORD: The Oak Ridge Boys and their producer, Ron Chancey, lent their vocal and production assistance to Barbara Mandrell on the title song of her new album, ``Get To The Heart.`` . . . Steve Wariner wrote or co-wrote 5 of the 10 songs on his new album, ``Life`s Highway.`` . . . Song title of the week: ``Too Lazy to Work (Too Nervous to Steal)`` by Thomas Vincent Cunningham.

ON THE ROAD: Nashville singer-songwriter Dave Loggins, who won the Country Music Association`s duet of the year award last fall with Anne Murray, spends considerable time in Chicago recording commercial jingles. One of his best-known is for Long John Silver seafood restaurants. . . . Keith Stegall was the featured entertainer at the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

Lew DeWitt, the former Statler Brother now pursuing a solo career after resigning from the Statlers several years ago because of health problems, says he has found out something about himself:

``All my life I`ve just been a singer, but I found out I can perform. That came with confidence. Probably the most comfortable hour of my day is spent on the stage. I love it now.``

He didn`t before because he was experiencing or dreading the pain and nausea of Crohn`s Disease, an intestinal malady that has plagued him all his life.

He notes that Crohn`s is an incurable disease, which ``I suppose will never entirely leave me. But, because I`ve finally learned what to eat and how to avoid stress, I have no more than twinges of the pain and nausea anymore.`` ET CETERA: Mike Reid, ex-Cincinnati Bengals football lineman, recently was named ASCAP`s ``songwriter of the year`` for writing or co-writing such often-performed hits as Ronnie Milsap`s ``Show Her,`` ``Still Losing You`` and ``Prisoner of the Highway,`` Barbara Mandrell and Lee Greenwood`s ``To Me``

and Sylvia`s ``I Never Quite Got Back From Loving You.`` . . . Louise Mandrell says her hobbies are skiing, fishing, cooking, playing cards and any type of athletic competition.